My mind was still intact
by Ulquio
Summary: When Ulquiorra gets defeated by Ichigo, Orihime tries to resurrect him. She thinks she has failed, but has she really? After he suddenly appears again out of nowhere everything changes.
1. Chapter 1

**Yoo this is my first time writing a fanfic for the Bleach fandom and since I absolutely fell in love with Ulquihime I decided to write a fic where Ulquiorra does not die, and can live a happy life with Orihime... hopefully xD**

"Inoue, we need to run quickly! We dont have much time until other arrancar find us". Orihime stayed still, motionless. She was focused on the very same spot where he had vanished into nothing but a pile of ash. One last time she wanted to touch his hand but instead al she grabbed was air and for some reason it made her sad. Ulquiorra was her enemy. If he would have been strong enough he would have killed Kurosaki-kun, her other friends, and maybe even her, if he was ordered to do so. Yet in his last moments she realised that he wasn't the emotionless monster he had appeared to be. She saw it in his eyes they changed into something more lively, maybe you could even have called it human.

An Espada with no remorse wore a human expression on his face. She was probably just mistaking. He was no human after all. He was just another merciless arrancar. But even though she knew all that she couldnt help but feel bothered by it. Ulquiorra meant something to her. She couldnt understand why, it just felt that way. Now that he was gone, strangely enough, she felt sad.

"Inoue-san hurry, the others are waiting!" Ichigo who was already on the move, yelled at her again. Orihime heard it but didnt react, instead she kneeled down and placed her hands into the pile of ash that remained of Ulquiorra. She let her fingertops slide over the sand, and her sadness increased. Ichigo was about to ask what was wrong, when she did something unexpected. "Soten Kisshun I reject!" A glowing orange field was formed by her Shun Shun Rikka. Ichigo could feel that she was putting all of her strength into the field. "What are you doing Inoue!?". Inoue was taken a back by the angry tone in Ichigo's voice and the field became unstable for a second. She had it under control again fast but she couldnt manage to put all of her power into it this time. It frustrated her, and she send an angry glare at Ichigo. Ichigo was shocked by her sudden hostility towards him. He laid a hand on her shoulder, and apoligized. Orihime looked up at him, a tear rolling down her face. "I need to save him Kurosaki-kun!" She yelled at Ichigo. Several other tears streamed down her face. "Are you out of your mind! Why would you want to save him! Has he not caused you enough pain already? He's an Espada he could kill us both here on the spot! I dont have the power to fight him anymore with my injuries as they are now". Orihime looked back at the pile of ash again, nothing appeared to be happening. She swallowed a sob.

After some silence she looked up at Ichigo again. "Kurosaki-kun please! He wont hurt us! Give me a little more time!". Orihime was losing hope as time passed by and Ichigo didnt stop his efforts to get them to leave.

By now the ash wasnt even visible anymore. The ash had dissapeared into the endless sea of sand. Eventually Orihime got up and bursted into tears. Ichigo grabbed her and hugged her. After some time he gave a gentle tug at her arm motioning that they should get away. She took one last glance at the place where Ulquiorra had experienced his last moments. Where he had faded into nothing. After that she swallowed her tears and didnt look back again.

 **Aye first chapter done, please let me know if you liked it or not , or what I can do to improve! (the following chapters will be longer, but this one is short because its the prologue)**


	2. Chapter 2

Ulquiorra couldnt move, speak, hear, feel. All of his senses were gone, they had vanished along with his body. The only thing that still existed was his mind. He had no clue for how long he had been alone with his thoughts. It could be hours, weeks or even months or years, he had no idea. He seemed to have lost his sense of time. Any other living being would have felt extremely bored by now, but he just felt empty. He wasn't going to waste his time on unnecessary feelings like boredom. He tried to keep his mind from thinking too much, after all he would be stuck here forever. Thinking about things would have no purpose, because there was nothing beyond this for him. This is where it ended, and he had found peace with that, or so he thought. Yet his mind still wandered to the woman who had been in his care for so long. As hard as he tried to control his thoughts he kept thinking about her and what she had awakened in him. He had wanted to understand her all this time, but her mind was like a maze in which he got lost so easily. He was too late now though and exactly that, is why he couldn't stand it that his mind did something as unnecesarry as thinking about the woman. He'd never see her again, therefore never understand her. So why was he wasting his energy on trying to understand something he couldn't understand. His thoughts got errupted by an odd feeling. He could feel warmth, which made no sense since he had lost the ability to feel warmth. He could not tell where the warmth was coming from and where he felt it touching his skin. Wait a second. It couldnt even be touching his skin, he didn't have a skin anymore. He was confused and he did not like it, this wasn't supposed to be happening. He could think of nothing better to do than wait, and after some time it seemed like it had worked. He heard a light squeeking sound. He couldn't hear it clear enough to understand what it was it confused him even more. How could he hear without ears? how could he feel without his skin and flesh? Ulquiorra was not one to get frustrated soon but this just didn't make sense. It was the same with the woman. Was it his imagination? or was the sound getting louder. It almost sounded like sobbing. Ulquiorra wondered about the unusual sound and kept listening closely. Suddenly he felt something itching at the back of his neck. Out of automatism he tried to bring his hand to his neck to cease the itching. It was then that he realized that his upper body was regenerating. His chest was glowing and his left arm was almost fully regenerated. "impossible" he said out loud with the voice he had regained too. When he tried to lift his arm it took him great effort to move it even a little. He could feel himself growing more tired with the attempts to raise his arm. He pushed himself to the point where he got dizzy. The sound ceased and he could only feel his arm hurting and throbbing. He pulled all of his last strength together and gave it another try. His arm moved maybe an inch and he had reached his limits by now. He got extremely tired suddenly and before he knew it, he fell into a deep slumber.

* * *

He awakened to a darkness and it took him some time before he rembered what had happened. It wasn't like Ulquiorra to merely forget important things like that. He felt that he had yet to regain his right arm, which was odd since he started regenerating from his head downwards to his feet. It was also peculiar that he couldnt see a thing apart from a void of nothingness. Again it took him great effort to move. He tried to move one of his legs which were more powerful compared to his arm, and found that he was able to move it up a little. he continued to push his leg up and suddenly it became easy to bring it up higher. It felt as if his leg had freed itself from something he was stuck within. He tried to do the same with his other leg, and it worked as well. He was in an uncomfortable position now and he just couldn't manage to do the same with his arm. He had an idea in mind but if it didnt work he could harm himself severely. He decided to try it, since he had nothing to lose anyway. He closed his eyes and focused on his hand. His spiritual energy flowed into his hand and he formed a cero. When it was big and powerful enough he released it. He got pushed back by the pressure but when he opened his eyes he was staring at the sky. So it had worked. He gave it little thought and pushed himself up with some effort. He had soon come to realize that he was still in Hueco place looked deserted and he had no idea how many time had passed and how many of his comrades had died. For all he knew he could be the only surviver. He looked down at what had been holding him back. To his suprise it had been a thick layer of white sand. Had his strength decreased that much? he wondered. He quickly made his way to Las Noches but it was empty. He didn't feel other reiatsu either. Suddenly he experienced a weird feeling, a feeling that was unknown to him. It was the feeling of not having a purpose. Without Aizen-sama around he had no one to follow, no orders to obey. He stood still looking into the never ending white corridors. He stayed still for long, maybe even an hour. Then he straightened himself. He knew what he had to do. He had to open a Garganta and find Aizen. As quickly as possible.

 **Thanks for keeping up with me, and please give reviews so I can improve, or tell me what you'd like to happen! See ya**


	3. Chapter 3

"Woman, it is your fault that I died".

His long slender fingers wrapped theirselves around Orihime's throath. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry please forgive me Ulquiorra!". Orihime cried out, but it only caused the pressure on her throath to increase. She gasped for air, and when she looked him in the eyes it was empty. There wasn't even a spark of emotion to be found. She'd also noticed that his hands felt cold and hard like stone. This wasn't like Ulquiorra. Well, it was how most people saw him. But she knew the real him, and this just wasn't right. Her eyes got teary and she looked away from him. She barely had enough oxygen left to not- pass out. And right as she started feeling dizzy, he let her go. She didn't hit the ground though. She just kept falling. When she looked down she couldn't see a thing, except for an endless black void. She wasn't scared. She was just relieved that she didn't have to see Ulquiorra like that any longer. Even thinking about him that way made her heart throb in her chest. She closed her eyes to wash away the imagine. Suddenly a threathening amount of reiatsu startled her and right before she hit the ground someone catched her. "Kurosaki-kun?". Ichigo smiled down to her and ran a hand over her cheek. She liked it when he gave her this kind of attention, but something was yet again wrong. This wasn't like Ichigo. His smile seemed unnatural and his hand felt cold, but the worst was the horrific reiatsu emating from him. He came really close to her and his hot breath tickled her ear. "You're the reason I turned into a hollow". He whispered in her ear. A shiver went down her spine. A mask formed before his eyes and slowly he was turning into the beast she had seen in Hueco Mundo that time. He balled his hand into a fist and swung it at her chest full force. She felt her ribs being crushed one by one and the air was forced out of her lungs. She chocked and could barely breath. He prepared to punch her again when-

"Orihime?". Orihime's eyes snapped open and she felt sweat dripping down her forehead. "Orihime, are you alright?". A hand was gently placed on her shoulder and her breathing calmed. "Tatsuki-san! Oh its nothing, just a bad dream". Orihime fidgeted with her hair and forced a small smile on her face. Tatsuki had come over for a sleepover this night. They had done all sorts of fun stuff just like the old days. "You don't look fine Orihime. Should I get you some water?". It was true, she wasn't fine at all. This dream and dreams simular have been haunting her ever since that horrible event in Hueco Mundo. She'd gotten so used to these dreams, that she hadn't even thought of the fact that Tatsuki would see her like this. "Ah no I'm really fine Tatsuki-san". Tatsuki sighed and sat up straight. "You know Orihime, If something is bothering you, you can always tell me". Orihime smiled at her friend and gave her a hug. "Thank you Tatsuki-san!".

* * *

The next day after school Orihime got a text from Ichigo. "Hurry to Urahara, something is wrong".

A sudden feeling of concern enveloped her. It felt wrong. Orihime had always trusted her intuition and this didn't feel right. She hurried to the little cranky shop and when she entered, Ishida, Sado and Ichigo had already assembled there. "Orihime-chan nice to see you, please take a seat!". Urahara greeted her and motioned towards the seat next to Ichigo. She hesitantly sat down. Ever since that day in Hueco Mundo, she didn't feel nearly as save with Ichigo as she had felt. Ichigo noticed her tense form, and he turned his face away. Orihime was about to tell him that she was alright when Urahara spoke up. "So you're probably all wondering what's wrong and why I summoned you to my beautiful store".Ishida nodded, and became impatient. "Could you please continue with your story Urahara-san. Now". "Oh my Ishida-kun don't be so hostile towards me it hurts my feelings!" Urahara said with a smug smile on his face. His voice turned serious again. "Well anyway, the reason I brought you here, is because an old enemy has reappeared". Everyone visibly tensed and a worried look spread across their faces. "Actually, there were 2 but Yoruichi-san managed to capture one of them, or more like, convince him to come with us... He's even considering to join forces with us". Orihime was shocked but most of all curious. Which one of their enemies would even consider joining them. It must be someone who's not really evil, who has a good heart. Maybe Muramasa? or Ichimaru? but they both died... An image of Ulquiorra flashed before her, but she quickly forced the thought out of her mind. She'd seen him die right before her eyes, it couldn't possibly be him. She had to think about him a lot lately, it was weird but she kind of missed him. She felt like he was the only one who took her serious at all times. And who genuinely listened to what she had to say, even though he didn't agree with her. At the same time, her fear of him had encreased. The blame for that, were the dreams she had. They scared her. She decided that it was best to stop guessing around and she listened as Urahara spoke again. "I must say you probably won't give him a warm welcome, but please try to refrain yourselfs from doing anything stupid. Besides we've put a barrier on him which prevents him from doing anything rash". Ichigo and Ishida were frowning while Sado and Orihime remained calm. There were still so much questions to be answered, but what everyone was craving to know now, is who this person is. "I'll go get him now. Stay tuned kids". Everybody looked at each other with faces of question and concern, but nobody said something. It took quite long and the tension was growing immensely. Just as Ichigo was about to stand up to see what was happening, a disturbing reiatsu spread throughout the room. A voice pierced the tense atmosphere.

"Yo Kurosaki Ichigo, long time no see". Everyone looked up in shock as a tall and muscular blue-haired Espada entered the room.

Ichigo gasped.

"Grimmjow!?".

 **Don't worry guys Ulquiorra will make an appearance soon but I don't want to rush things. Please leave a review so I can improve, and tell me if you like the story so far.**

 **See ya!**


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